


Letters from Neverland

by charmedtomeetyou



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 17:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4445165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charmedtomeetyou/pseuds/charmedtomeetyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry, having the heart of the truest believer, has been kidnapped to Neverland, where the dreaded pirate Captain Hook is under Peter Pan’s employ. Henry is writing letters to his mother as he tries to escape the island, detailing his struggles and the friends and enemies he creates while he’s there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letters from Neverland

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe, Emma never gave Henry up and Hook never teamed up with Cora, but the curse did occur and Emma did break it after coming to town on her 28th birthday.

Dear Mom,

I know you’ll probably never get these letters. There’s no Neverland post office and I’m starting to think I might not survive long enough to find a way to give them to you myself. But I know Grandma would encourage me to have hope, so I’m going to write anyway. See, it’s kind of like every other kid here is in that movie _Camp Nowhere_ and they were just dying to get away, happy doing things on their own, being crazy and free and getting way muddier than they really need to. But you and I had just found our family and I wasn’t ready to give you all up. So I’m going to be that lame kid at camp who still writes his mommy every night he’s away.

I’m sure you’re wondering how I have paper and a pen. Well in Neverland you just think things you want and they’re in front of you. For some reason it’s really easy for me. It doesn’t work on people, though, or else you’d be here with me already. Which would just mean you’d be stuck here, too. So I’m kinda glad it didn’t work.

The other kids are back from hunting so I should go.

Love,

Henry

 

Dear Mom,

It’s so hot here. And humid. It’s a hundred times worse than that time we went to Disney World in July. Plus the real Peter Pan is an asshole. Believe me, mom, if you met him, you’d excuse my swearing. He says he wants me to save magic somehow, but you know I inherited the family trait of lie detecting and this crazy kid is a _liar_. And he’s got Captain Hook working for him, too. He’s not quite like the movies – no perm or crazy moustache and I’m pretty sure when he talks about skinning a crocodile he’s talking about a person and that’s just… gross. But he’s the one who killed that psycho couple who kidnapped me, so I guess I can’t hate him too much.

Remember that time you yelled at me for watching Lord of the Flies when it was on TV that time? Well, that’s what this feels like.

I tried to play along yesterday, to run a _con_ like you would back when you did bail bonds, but it’s too hard. I can’t be that dark, mom.

I hope I find a way home soon.

Love,

Henry

 

Dear Mom,

Pan killed a kid right in front of me today. There’s still blood on my shirt. No laundry in Neverland, either. Pan told me I should look at it as a reminder, to keep me in line. He’s not as nice to me as he was before, but I don’t actually think he’ll kill me yet. He needs me for something.

Hook told me I’ve got at least a week until everything aligns. That’s when Pan needs me. I’m going to try to escape. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll do it. Hook told me I shouldn’t defy Pan, but I think he secretly wants me to get away with it. He’s been super nice to me and making me feel better, especially when I told him about my dad. I guess they knew each other from a way long time ago. Did you know dad was hundreds of years old? That doesn’t make it any better that he died or anything, but he definitely had a full life. I miss him, so Hook is telling me stories about when he was a boy. Dad sailed the Jolly Roger! I asked if he would teach me, but then Pan called for him and he had to go. I think he’ll be back tomorrow.

Love, Henry

 

Dear Mom,

I’m so tired. Pan didn’t let us sleep at all, having us hoot and holler around a fire all night. I pretended that I didn’t miss my family and pretended I could hear the music but really I couldn’t. We had a great ten years together on our own, and you were the best mom ever! But we got so much happier after we stumbled into Storybrooke and found our family. The way some of these kids talk when they finally do get a little sad, well it reminds me of the way you talked about growing up. It made me realize you were a lost girl. And dad was an _actual_ lost boy. I wish I could tell these kids that there’s hope that lost boys and girls don’t stay that way, but I don’t want them to hurt me. Maybe I’ll try tomorrow. It’s getting closer to whatever it is Pan wants with me.

I want to be a hero like you and grandma and grandpa. And I want to make it home to tell you about it face to face.

Love, Henry

 

Dear Mom,

Hook told me about his family today. He had a brother and they were in the Navy together. They thought they were being heroes but really they were being manipulated. Kind of like me. Anyway, he wants to help me get home to you. He said Bae would want that. Did you know dad’s name was Baelfire? I wonder why he changed it to Neal.

I’m meeting Hook now so we can make a plan.

I’ll see you soon.

Love, Henry

 

Dear Mom,

Sorry I didn’t write yesterday. I’ve been so busy! I know I said before that Killian was gross, but he’s not. He’s done some bad stuff, but he said he’s going to make up for it and it definitely wasn’t a lie. I told him all about you and how you turned your life around and he called you a “tough lass” and I’m pretty sure that’s a big compliment for him. Oh, yeah! Killian is Hook. He was Killian Jones before he was Captain Hook and I feel like his real name suits him better now. I can’t wait until you meet him. He’s awesome.

Anyway, we visited where dad hid out when he was here and we figured out how he got off the island. There’s this thing – it’s kind of like a candle. And remember in the movie how Pan’s shadow is separate from him? Well it does his dirty work I guess (like Killian still pretends to) and it’s the only thing that can leave. So we’re going to hitch a ride on it in Killian’s ship!

I’ve had to be super secret about it, with Killian running some distractions, but I’ve gotten some of the other kids on my side, too. I told them about you and dad and Killian and how not all lost kids are lost grown ups. How sometimes they find a family or make a family or find other stuff they love like dogs or baking cupcakes. So it’s gotten easier to pretend I’m on the side of the Lost Boys because some of the lost boys are on _my_ side!

It’s going to work, mom, I know it! Tell Grandma and Grandpa I’ll be back soon.

We’ll make hot cocoa with cinnamon as soon as I get back.

Love,

Henry

 

Mom,

Pan knows.

We have to speed up the plan.

I’m really scared. Killian said he’ll get me out of here no matter what and he told me not to worry about him because he’s a survivor, but I’m worried that because of me his luck is running out.

I’ll write again later.

Love you.

Henry

 

Mom,

I saw you! I knew you had magic in you and I don’t know how I possibly knew to imagine a mirror but I did and you were there and I swear I’m coming home. Could you see us? Could you see me and Killian?

He told me he thinks you’re pretty. I promised him if we both make it back alive that you’d go on a date with him. He seemed pretty motivated after that. But if you don’t want to go on a date I think that’s OK, too. He’s a good guy. He’ll understand. Just let him down easy if you do? He’s never had a cheeseburger before, so we owe him that, at least.

Love, Henry

p.s. Killian says hi

 

Mom,

We captured the shadow! Pan is chasing us, though, and it’s really not looking great for us. There are 10 lost boys with Killian and I (and his first mate Mister Smee, who for some reason is still wearing a knit cap in the freaking jungle), but there are still more on Pan’s side. Killian thinks maybe Tink will help us (yes, Tinkerbell, she’s real, too, but she’s had her wings clipped). We just need to get to the ship and use some pixie dust to get the shadow into the sail and

 

Dear Miss Swan,

I’m so sorry. Your son – he’s the bravest kid I’ve ever met. And he’s got the biggest heart. It’s the Heart of the Truest Believer – that’s why Pan wanted him. That’s why he’s been looking for him for all the bloody centuries I’ve been alive. He wanted to use your son to make himself immortal, to make himself all-powerful. Henry just wanted to come home. And he wanted all the other kids to get home, too. He offered his home – _your_ home – to anyone who didn’t have one. He talks about you like you’re just the most amazing person in all the realms. You must be, to have raised a kid like him (mostly alone, at that).

I’m sorry about Baelfire, too. I suppose he was Neal to you. But I tried to save him when he was a boy, to give him a home. You see, I loved his mother. She left him behind to escape her cowardly husband – the man you know as “Mr. Gold” – but I always thought we’d go back for him eventually. By the time I got to him, she was gone and he refused to forgive me. Perhaps if he’d spent more time with me, he wouldn’t have gone on to set you up for his crime and abandon your boy. I know that he made up for it eventually, spending his last few months with the two of you, but I wish it hadn’t taken his impending death for him to connect with your son.

Your son is truly a special lad, the most incredible boy I’ve ever known. He’s made you proud, Swan, I promise you that. And we’re on our way back to you right now, despite it not being under the circumstances I had hoped.

I had sent a few of the no-longer-lost boys to find Tink and she had just one tiny vial of pixie dust left. She swore it no longer worked, that she didn’t possess the power to activate it. But after an impassioned speech by your son about how hope always exists deep in your soul when you know there’s a home to go back to, well that vial lit up like the _magic_ it was. And we’d just gotten the shadow into the sail when Pan found us.

The only way Pan was going to get Henry’s heart was if he surrendered it himself. I’m not clear on the reasoning there – perhaps Pan doesn’t possess the capability to rip hearts from chests like other witches I’ve heard of – but in any case, his best tool was manipulation. He tried to make surrendering his heart sound _heroic_ at first, trying to play on Henry’s desire to fit in with the heroes of his family. But it failed. So he tried to play dirty. It broke my heart to watch the boy be told such vile things, that his family had given up on him, that his mother finally felt _free_ now that her little mistake was gone. He revealed himself to be Henry’s great grandfather, said that the true mark of Henry’s family – _his_ family – was selfishness, abandonment.

But your boy was resolute. He knew he was loved and he wasn’t letting go of hope.

Henry used the magic he possessed to conjure a box to contain Pan, but it wasn’t going to last long.

Just as we took to the sky, one of the lost boys fired an arrow, headed straight for Jamie, one of the boys we’d promised a home. Henry didn’t hesitate for a second, pushing Jamie out of the way to take the arrow himself.

“It’s OK, Killian,” he’d shouted to me as he took in my horrorstuck visage. “When we get home my mom will save me.”

He assumed the danger of that arrow was its infection with a curse that could be broken with True Love’s Kiss. But not every ailment has such a simple magical cure.

The truth is your boy is afflicted with a flesh wound – no poison, no curse. But he’s lost a lot of blood and none on board is a surgeon. He hasn’t awoken since we set sail, but we seemed to have slowed the bleeding.

Every single soul on this ship was hopeless just days ago. Your boy has changed this. He’s saved us all. I hope we will return to your town and seek out your medical facilities in enough time that we may save him in return.

I had hoped to meet you under more joyous circumstances, but know that I owe you my life.

Sincerely,

Killian Jones

 

Emma reads the letters from start to finish as Henry’s still unconscious form lay beside her in the hospital bed. Dr. Whale has patched him up and they’ve done transfusions and they say the only reason he hasn’t woken up yet is because of all the sedatives (his body needs to heal), but she’s still terrified she’s never going to see his sparkling eyes again.

She feels pretty guilty at this point for holding a knife to Killian’s throat, now that she’s read all the letters. Henry had grown to trust this man, see him as a friend, a mentor. And the man – former villain he may be – seems to love her kid like his own.

(And, in all technicality he’s practically the kid’s step grandfather, right?)

(Though he’s a little too _hot_ for grandpa status.)

( _Whoa, Emma, let’s not go there._ )

She probably bruised him and she _definitely_ left him handcuffed in a supply closet in the hospital and she should probably go find him before Henry wakes up to realize his darling mom knocked out his new hero.

She rushes into the waiting room, where her parents are seated (along with half the town).

“Is it Henry? Has he woken?” Snow shrieks, bolting upright as her too-big Disney Princess eyes go wide. Charming’s arm tightens around her, his brow furrowed with worry (obviously considering the possibility that her news might be the _opposite_ of good).

“Sorry, guys, no. He’s still out. Probably will be for a few more hours, the doc says. And I suppose trusting Frankenstein is what my life has come to, hasn’t it?” Emma’s still not over the whole _fairy tales are real_ thing. It’s increased her sarcasm levels infinitely.

She puts a reassuring hand on her mother’s shoulder. “Actually I was wondering if you would go sit with him for a little while, please? There’s someone I need to go find.”

“Who’s more important than Henry?” her father asks in a maddeningly accusing tone. He’s just a little too overprotective of his 30 year-old “child.”

“No one, _dad_ , but this guy is apparently Henry’s very best friend. I kind of owe it to the kid to not leave the man to starve to death.”

Emma scurries off in the direction of the supply closet containing Captain _freaking_ Hook. Or she thinks it’s this direction? She tries three different doors before she finally opens one to reveal a human inside.

“Swan! I knew you wouldn’t leave me to rot in here.”

“You’re acting awfully familiar, there, buddy. I’ve seen you _twice_ and one of those was only a flash through a mirror. The second was when you presented me with my _unconscious_ child. We’re not exactly _pals_.”

“Nonsense, Swan! I know you very well. Your lad told me all about you. The reality doesn’t disappoint, might I say,” he waggles his eyebrows and nudges her with his non-cuffed elbow.

“Really? You’re hitting on me? You’re still tied up. I could leave you here.”

“Bad form to tie a man up and leave him wanting, darling.” He swipes his tongue over his bottom lip and looks at her with his pretty blue eyes like he’s about to devour her. Which, of course, makes Emma so angry she could stab him.

“ _Ugh._ I don’t care how much Henry likes you, I’m – ”

“I’m joking, love. Now will you please get this contraption off me so I can go see Henry?” All his swagger appears to melt away, a heartbreakingly genuine smile crossing his face instead. “He saved me, you know,” he states, clearly worried that in all her anger that she never bothered to read the letters.

“I know,” she states simply. She pulls the little key out of her pocket and unlocks the handcuffs, leading him by his elbow out of the supply closet and toward Henry’s room.

When they arrive, she introduces Killian to her parents, promising a more full explanation of the events of Neverland after her son wakes up. She and Killian settle themselves next to Henry, Emma leaning on the end of his bed and Killian taking the chair.

Emma fingers the stack of letters. “He probably left an awful lot out of these. Care to fill me in?”

“Gladly, love.”

The two of them talk for hours. At first it’s all about Henry – Killian recounts the tales of his Neverland bravery and Emma shares stories of his childhood, the fairy tales he always inexplicably believed were real. The conversation opens up to more of Henry and Emma’s life together and then how Neal made his way back into the picture. Killian shares a few stories of Neal/Bae from his ship and Emma asks about Milah – Killian speaks of her with sadness (but love) and Emma almost can’t see how he was ever truly a villain. She says as much and Killian assures her his descent into darkness was like anyone else’s – it seemed like his only option at the time, like he was doing it for the _right_ reasons. But it was Henry, _her_ boy who brought him back.

The pirate captain – still decked out in leather and brandishing his hook – was nearly in tears (and Emma was _nearly_ about to reach for his hand to comfort him) when suddenly a tiny little grumble pulls the pair of them back to reality.

_Henry_.

He grumbles and sighs a few times and both she and Killian are standing over his head as his eyes finally open, his face immediately lighting up into the most beautiful smile. 

“Hey, kid!” she shouts, brushing his hair back from his forehead.

“Good morning, lad, have a nice rest?” Killian adds, smiling even more brightly than Henry.

“Hey… guys” he croaks out, sounding almost like a frog.

Emma really _is_ crying now and it’s Killian reaching for _her_ hand and she knows she should go get the doctor, but she’s just taking a moment to feel _relieved_ , to revel in this wonderful moment where _hope_ has, once again, led to a happy ending.

“Sorry… to interrupt you two,” Henry says, Emma cutting him off immediately.

“Henry! You’re not interrupting! We’re just so happy to see your eyes open again, kid.”

“Yeah, but you were … talking. Guess the only way … to finish that is for you to go on … a date.” The kid can hardly use his voice box and he’s already trying to set her up.

(Well, technically he’d started trying to set her up a week before – she just hadn’t read it in the letter until this night.)

“Henry!” Killian starts to admonish, no trace of the flirty swagger she’d seen earlier (he really _must_ love her kid, huh?).

Emma takes less than a second to mull it over in her head.

“You’re right, kid. He did get you back here to me in one piece. Well, mostly. I think I owe him at least _one_ date, don’t you think? You did _promise_ him, after all.”

Henry nods his head frantically, probably giving himself a headache in the process. Killian just stares, like he’s not entirely sure he heard her correctly but hopes to _God_ he has.

 

He stares the same way when he picks her up on their first date the following week (Henry and Charming _both_ giving him the overprotective dad speech).

 

And he stares at her that same way the night she asks him to move in with them six months later (Killian writing Henry a lengthy thank you letter that evening – both for saving him and for leading him _home_ ).


End file.
